Team Canada laid down a fearless performance of their Team Free routine on Saturday and captured bronze on day 2 of the World Cup Super Final held in Oviedo, Spain.
“We’ve grown so much as a team over the past week,” said team captain Kenzie Priddell, from Regina, SK. “We all have a common goal and together, we share the same energy, the same fire. Today, we were able to switch our focus from being worried about mistakes to leaving fear behind and concentrating on performing well.”
Joining Priddell on the Super Final podium were Sydney Carroll (Saskatoon, SK), Laurianne Imbeau (Québec City, QC), Jonnie Newman (Calgary, AB), Raphaelle Plante (Québec City, QC), Claire Scheffel (Brantford, ON), Florence Tremblay (Rimouski, QC) and Olena Verbinska (Toronto, ON), as well as alternates Audrey Lamothe (Montreal, QC), Kiara Quieti (St-Leonard, QC), and Mya Fortin (Gatineau, QC).
“I’m very happy for this hard-working group of athletes,” claimed Head Coach Gábor Szauder. “Our objective is to keep progressing throughout the season to reach our maximum potential for the Pan Am Games, and now we’re going to be able to build on this success as we keep learning how to compete.”
In the morning session, Audrey Lamothe continued to impress and secured another bronze medal, this time in the solo free event.
“We’ve added a tremendous amount of difficulty to my free routine since the last event in Montpellier, and today my goal was to swim cleanly to reach the highest degree of difficulty possible,” explained Lamothe after her performance. In the end, she was credited with in 25.7000 in difficulty, just 5 points shy of her declared degree and an improvement of more than 9 points over her difficulty score from the World Cup in France.
The afternoon session featured the duet technical event, with Jonnie Newman and Kenzie Priddell taking to the pool to represent Canada. The newly-formed pair showed significant progress, receiving a difficulty deduction on a single hybrid to finish in 7th place.
The competition concludes on Sunday with the presentation of the Duet Free and Acrobatic routine events.